Patna: Work on Patna Metro Rail Project will soon gain momentum with central government likely to give green signal to the project by end of July 2018. The Bihar Government has completed work on preparing detailed project report (DPR). This will soon be handed over to the Union Urban Ministry by June 15. This news was shared by Suresh Kumar Sharma, state minister for housing and urban development with the media on Friday.
Once the centre government gives its approval, work on Patna Metro Rail project will begin. As part of the plan in the first phase priority will be given for development, north-south corridor. Work will begin from Patna Junction to planned interstate bus terminal (ISBT) at Ramachak Bairiya through NIT-Patna and Rajendra Nagar Terminal.
The report prepared by NIT-Patna gives the comprehensive mobility plan as well as alternative analysis of metro rail project. The same will be discussed in a high level meeting at Delhi on May 21 between the UDHD as well as ministry of housing and urban affairs officials. Chaitanya Prasad, State UDHD principal secretary communicated that the report will be discussed to chart out plan of action.
Prasad also shared that Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) is getting the DPR on the basis of CMP and alternative analysis and the Centre’s innovative strategy.
The minister is hoping that work on Patna Metro Rail project will start in this financial year if everything goes as per the plan. In the first phase 6km long north-south corridor will be made functional by 2019 end. In the second phase work on east-west corridor will begin between the Mithapur Bus Stand to Saguna Mor via Bailey Road and Patna Junction stretch that will cover a distance of 14.5km.
Sharing the technicality of the project, Sharma explained that the north-south stretch will primarily run on elevated stretch with only a part of it running underground. He said that underground metro project are a costly affair, so major projects are planned on elevated stretches only.
NIT-Patna has prepared the report based on the assessment of traffic at various routes and expected increase in coming years. Professor of civil engineering and dean (planning and development), Sanjeev Sinha part of the team also said that they plan to conduct a micro-level survey too. This will be carried on routes that have less than 15,000 commuters on a daily basis. They will also study areas where traffic is expected to increase exponentially by 2041 in order to plan metro rail routes to ease out traffic congestion in those areas.
